By Nneka Nwogwugwu
African Development Bank (AfDB) had several productive engagements around its strategic priorities at the just concluded 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings in New York.
Meeting highlights included an urgent call for increased financing to mitigate the effects of climate change and food insecurity.
African Development Bank Group President Dr Akinwumi Adesina led the bank’s delegation to the meetings and played an active part in discussions leading to an international declaration to end malnutrition and stunting.
The bank’s engagements reflect its strategic priorities as African countries, which it supports, struggle with the lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as food and fuel price spikes arising from Russia’s war in Ukraine, and climate change.
Climate change was a recurring theme in many of the bank’s UNGA discussions, especially the need for urgent financing for the countries most at risk from climate change.
Climate change has assumed greater urgency with the next UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) due to be held in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt in less than two months. COP 27 or “the African COP,” as it is being called, presents an unprecedented opportunity for a unified African voice to demand that the global community move beyond talk to concrete action on financing for climate adaptation and mitigation.
Speaking at the 2nd ministerial meeting on climate and development, Adesina joined US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and other participants in urging developed countries to deliver on the pledges they made at COP26 in Glasgow last year, and under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
John Kerry’s words were unambiguous: “We are late. We must act. I’m fed up with saying the same thing too many times in the same meetings. Business as usual is the collective enemy. It’s time for action,” he told the meeting.
Adesina warned: “Africa is suffering, Africa is choking, and is in serious financial distress for what it did not cause. There must be a greater sense of urgency, not in talking, but in doing and delivering resources that the continent needs very desperately.”
The African Development Bank Group joined the Global Leadership Council in a new initiative to scale up clean, reliable energy and address global warming.
The Global Leadership Council comprises global leaders, including the African Development Bank head, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa; United Nations Development ProgrammeAdministrator Achim Steiner; European Investment Bank. President Werner Hoyer; Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr; and the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, co-chair of the council.
In the sidelines of the General Assembly, Adesina also led a bank delegation to the World Health Organization (WHO) for meetings. The two organizations agreed to work together on quality health care infrastructure, vaccines, essential medicines, nutrition, and the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus congratulated the African Development Bank for birthing the Africa Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, which he said “could help in market shaping for pharmaceutical products.”